Integrating Positive Psychology and Autism: A Roundtable

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Wright, P. C., Moseley, R. L., Tomasulo, D., Srinivasan, H., Wilson, J., Woods, S., & Rashid, T. (2024). Integrating Positive Psychology and Autism: A Roundtable. Autism in Adulthood, 6(4), 389-400. https://doi.org/10.1089/aut.2024.38246.pw

Publication date: 14 Aug 2024 Added to AutiHub: 6 Jul 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
Publisher source (DOI) Full text OpenAlex source

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Authors

Publication authors
7
Publication authors identified as autistic
3 / 7 (42.9%)
  1. Patricia C. Wright
  2. Rachel L. Moseley *
  3. Dan Tomasulo
  4. Hari Srinivasan *
  1. Jodie Wilson *
  2. Sara Woods
  3. Tayyab Rashid

Abstract

Positive psychology is the scientific study of what makes life most worth living, focusing on individual and societal wellbeing. 1It emphasizes the understanding and building of an individual's most positive qualities: optimism, courage, work ethic, future-mindedness, interpersonal skill, the capacity for pleasure and insight, and social responsibility. 2The poorer outcomes seen in autistic people, such as their lower quality of life and their heightened rates of mental illness and suicidality, [3][4][5] demonstrate the need for increased focus on wellbeing.Mental health professionals working with autistic people often feel they lack the tools to help clients achieve positive change. 6,7Autistic people often struggle to access these and other services, particularly if they have higher support needs. 8,9This often means that families must attempt to cater for unmet needs; 10,11 sometimes to the detriment of their own wellbeing.These points suggest that while positive psychology might be helpful for autistic people, it might also help professionals to help them, and as well as supporting wellbeing in those around them.Autism and positive psychology have historically experienced limited overlap. 12Recently, emerging research has suggested that positive psychology practices may support the well-being of autistic people [13][14][15] There may be opportunities, we suggest, to apply positive psychology practices with the wider autism community to promote improved wellbeing among autistics, their families, and service providers.This roundtable brought together autism and positive psychology scholars to explore those opportunities for synergy between the fields of autism and positive psychology, understand the barriers to useful cross-talk between these fields, and consider future directions for utilizing learnings from positive psychology for the benefit of autistic people and those who live and work with them.The following is a transcript of our discussion, with edits for clarity.

Bibliography cited by this reference

Cited references are imported from external metadata sources when they are available. The list may be partial.

Cited bibliography overview

These indicators describe the bibliography cited by this publication. An author name is counted each time it appears in one cited reference, so the same person can be counted more than once. Names not yet linked to an author already present in AutiHub are treated as unknown, not as non-autistic. Last computed: 2 Oct 2026 02:39.

Cited references
47
With a DOI
39
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
8
10 / 47 (21.3%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
4 / 47 (8.5%)
References with detected author names
46 / 47 (97.9%)
Without detected author names
1
Without a structured title
3
Without a stable identifier
7
References with raw author names still to review
0
References with external metadata lookup issues
0
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
163
From DOI or external metadata
163
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
0
72 / 163 (44.2%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 91 / 163 (55.8%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
24 / 163 (14.7%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 24 / 72 (33.3%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 19 / 150 (12.7%).
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